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The Voyage: Chapter 4
Stella's P.O.V We decided to leave Rachel on the Empire State Building there, knowingly that she will be in good condition to stay long enough to wait for an extraction. Fortunately the extraction team is fast. It's a couple of demigods coming to collect Rachel as she is sitting on the sidewalk of Mount Olympus. So, we have successfully rescued Rachel out of Slavery, but there's one thing we forgot to do. We forgot to ask Shirato or Rachel where is the slave trade is held. Dang man, it appears that we're in so much rush that we forgot to ask for directions. "Don't worry." Bella said to all of us. "We'll get another lead to the lair of the slave traders soon or later. Now all we need is to protect each other so that no one gets kidnapped or hurt, got it?" "Yes, Aunty Bella." Jarren, Melody and I said in unison, while Stephanie said, "Yes, Bella." "Alright, now let's go to the beach in Miami." Stephanie suggested. We all glared at Stephanie. "What? We're not going to vacation." Stephanie protested. "Then why are we going to the beach?" "Remember our dream about Slave number six hundred and sixty six?" Stephanie asked. Oh yeah, I remembered that dream really clearly. The slave was humiliated in front of the stage and the slave trader wants whoever owns this slave will force her to swear to the river styx for her to remain a slave forever, and in this case, the slave who owns this slave number six hundred and sixty six is in the beach of Miami. It's quite a long journey to go to Miami, especially when you're really hungry and need to eat. Luckily, there's a restaurant a few blocks away from the Empire State Building, so we can just go to that restaurant. So, we made our way to the restaurant since the 5 of us were very hungry. Thankfully I had stolen some mortal dollar cash from Shirato's house, so I have enough money to order food for everyone, and to take some of the food with us. As we approached the booth, people were looking at us like we were some kind of alien from outer space. We walked towards the cashier and the cashier smiled. "Hello, what would you like to order?" "Let's see..." Bella's voice trailed off while I looked at the list of available foods. I am surprised that this McDonald restaurant have many choices of food, unlike any other. Most people might be baffled when they came across this restaurant, but since we're familiar with the restaurant that we're eating, we just went straight to ordering the food. "I'll take this one." Bella said, pointing to a double cheese burger. Me, Melody pointed to the chicken wings while Jarren wanted a spicy chicken. Stephanie pointed to a large chicken on the corner of the handbook. "Alright..." As the girl on the cash register registered all the foods that we're going to order, and after we wait for awhile, the total amount to be paid showed up. It read: $35. Wow, not bad for a McDonalds. Some restaurant can reach up to $120 while ordering such food. Bella handed her the money, and it appears that we have paid enough amount of money, and we waited on the table just a few meters from the door. I grabbed onto Bella's hand real tight. I suddenly felt that something is about to go very bad in this very place. It turns out hat my assumption was right. Just then, someone appeared in the middle of thin air. First, the darkness engulfed the whole room, then the darkness receded and the next thing we knew is that the darkness had formed into a dark figure with blazing black armor covering its whole body. The figure sniffed around, making mortals panic. Bella told us to stay away from that thing. The figure walked around until it's infuriated and let out a loud roar that made all of us cover our ears and the figure disappeared in shadows. The mortals murmured amongst themselves. I know they're talking about the creature that just appeared out of nowhere. Meanwhile, I get a bad feeling about this. "Bella?" I took her hand. My hands trembling. "I think we should leave now." "Now wait, Stella." Bella reminded me. "Our meal haven't...." Just then, the waiter arrived, bringing us food that we ordered. I got my chicken wings, and I eat the chicken wings. It tastes so delightful that I was imagining if I was flying in the skies. "This is awesome!" I admitted. "Oh yeah!" Melody exclaimed. "The foods tastes awesome! I really wished that we could eat in this place every day!" "I know." Bella said. "But we have work to do. Your father is counting on us and don't let him down. Now finish your eating and let's get out." So all of us, including Stephanie, ate at a slightly faster rate. Some of the foods that are not finished were stored in Bella's food container in her backpack. "Come on! Let's go take a taxi!" We got out, and we looked left and right for a taxi. Suddenly, one approached from our right. "Taxi!!" We all yelled. The taxi seemed to notice us and decided to give us a ride. "To Miami Beach!" Bella gave the driver extra money. "Drive fast, ok?" "Alright." The taxi driver agreed. The driver drove us fast from the McDonalds. We were lucky that we are able to find a taxi that can drive us very fast. I hoped that this guy named Dallas Winston hadn't had the chance to make this girl a slave yet, because if he had made her swear to the river styx about making her a slave forever, there's nothing we could do, so it is best that we're going to move very fast. "Faster?" The driver asked. "Yes please!" I pleaded. "We need to get to Miami fast!" "Alrighty..." The driver said, as he stepped on the gas more as we accelerated. The driver glanced back at us, and we're a little shocked. This driver is in his teenage age, he's about 14 years old. "You're doing okay, back there?" The driver asked. "Well, yeah." I told him. "Good, because we're going to go a lot faster!" The driver said. Now from my observation, this guy might have been under the influence of drugs, probably methamphetamine. Drugs are dangerous. Chiron once told me that these things are very dangerous as they can alter your thinking process. It also makes you more depressed, and less reaction time. As we were on our way to Miami beach, I think about the calm seas in Miami. It always made my mind clearer when I think about the calm seas in the shore of Miami. A few hous later, we arrived at Miami, but we haven't arrived at the shore yet. We are really in a race against time right now, because if this Dallas guy made Lara swear to the river styx that Lara is going to be a slave forever, there's nothing we could do about it. Stephanie's P.O.V We entered the city of Miami. I heard that Miami has a very good beach that makes it a recreational centre for everyone. Just then, I voluntarily cast my thoughts off to that guy named Dallas. The slave appeared to be just left there, shivering in the cold. Dallas must have been very cruel to his slave, just leaving her like that in the cold chamber. As I looked closer, I noticed that her mouth is taped shut with a duct tape and her hands and legs were bound together. I snapped out of my thoughts very quickly, because the driver suddenly hit the brakes and we all hit the seat in the front. "Sorry." The driver said. "There's too much traffic in here. It's hard to get anywhere if the traffic is busy here." "Is the traffic in Miami always like this?" I asked. "Well, no." The driver said. "Usually, if something like this occurs, then someone must have happened. It is usually a car crash. It happens here a lot." I tried to imagine what happened if there were a lot of car crashes in New York City. I really wished that didn't happen in New York City. Just then, over the horizon, I saw some kind of a beach, filled with tourists. There it is. That's the beach of Miami that I was talking about, and just a few dots over to the left is..... My vision zoomed into the house, and suddenly, I realized how familiar this house looks. I've seen Dallas in this very house, and this must have been Dallas's house. "Hey guys..." I snapped out of my vision and pointed at the red painted gate house. "This is the house." Bella looked at me cautiously. "Stephanie, are you sure that this is Dallas's house?" "Yes!" I replied curtly. "I have visions about it!" "Well, Stephanie is the only one who knows about it, so let's go to that house!" Bella said. So we decided to pay a visit at the house, and I am suspecting that this Dallas guy must have been busy with his slave that I hoped that he forgot to close the front door. Jarren's P.O.V As we got closer to Dallas's house, I decided to be careful. I heard that this guy is a son of Chaos, which means that he is a protogenoi god, or in other case, a demigod with incredible powers, but there's no evidence indicating that he is a protogenoi god, so he must be a demigod. As we came closer, the view of the house gets more interesting. Other than the fact that the gate is painted red, there's a bunch of blue parts of the fence that is lying on stacks beside the red painted gates. This suggests that Dallas must have been very lazy to do anything on his own and so he decided to buy a slave to do his dirty work. Anyways, our goal is to free Lara before Dallas made her swear to the river styx to become a slave forever, or if Dallas did make her a slave, we could just ask Dallas nicely where did he buy the slave. Just then, we arrived in front of a house with red painted fences. I am almost second-guessing that this house must have belonged to Dallas, because the house matched the description of the house I saw in my dream. "Ladies and Gentlemen..." The taxi driver said. "Welcome to my home." My Home? Did he just said My Home??? I must have mistaken. This couldn't be Dallas, can it?" "Yes, it is me." The taxi driver got out of his seat, and opened his jacket, revealing a plain white T-shirt beneath his jacket. I just noticed he got crimson hair. "I am Dallas, Dallas Winston." So this is it... The question that we are about to find out is.... has Dallas made Lara swear into the river styx or not? No, let's start with a simple talk first, because we don't want to get his attention. "Hello, My name is Jarren." I introduced myself. And soon enough, we all started to introduce ourselves. Dallas just laughed. "Now, why don't you all just relax and come inside my house?" I felt something bad is going to happen. This guy just invites us in without any fight. Usually, people who gave us a ride just dismiss us or something, but this guy is different. He just welcome us with his open hands into his house. I don't think his slave is here, because if she is, he wouldn't told all of us to come in. "Please, have a sit." He said, pointing to the chair. As soon as we sat down on a chair, he reveals his plot. "Now, I know why you're here." He said. As soon as he said that, we became shocked. It appears that this nice looking guy wasn't so nice after all. He knows what we were here for, and now we are going to suffer for it. "Now don't worry," Dallas said in a very calm voice. "If you want her, she is just down there." He pointed to the corridor leading down the stairs. We looked at the corridor. There's something that is trying to get up the stairs, and it looks like it's crawling slowly up the stairs. We all rushed towards her to see her completely naked and lethergic. Her hands were chained with heavy metal chains with very dense weight strapped to the chains. It might have looked just like a regular ping pong ball, but it appears Lara had trouble moving her hands because of it. Lara crumpled to her knees and we rushed in to help her. "Lara? Are you okay?" Stephanie asked. The girl glared at Stephanie, as she is about to raise her hand, but fails. "How do you know my name?" She murmured. "We're demigods, Lara. We've been tracking you in order to save you." Bella told her. "It's too late, demi....gods..." She murmured again. "My master already made me swear to the river styx that I am going to be a slave forever." Oh by the Gods we are too late!! Why must this happen? No, no, no... This cannot be happening. Just then, from behind, Dallas laughed. "Ooh... It appears that you guys are too late." Dallas said, and he lunged at us. I anticipated the attack and sidestepped and kicked him straight in the chest. Dallas went down and he growled. Meanwhile, Melody managed to get Lara free but is unable to release the weights in her hands the size of a ping pong ball. It appears that it is too heavy. Dallas laughed while getting up. "You see, the weights are not just ordinary weights. They are made from Chaos's essence that makes it 150 times more heavier than the actual object. Now, if you will excuse me, I want to play with my slave." "Not until you explain where you got her from." Stephanie countered. "Ohh, you want to know where I got her?" Dallas asked. "It's actually not near here. It's on the Colloseum." "Colloseum? Rome?" Bella asked. "Yes." Dallas said. "I bought her on Rome. The whole slave trade system was carried out by this.... girl, I suppose? I heard her name is.... Na--diii..." "Nadine." Bella completed the name for him. "Ah, yes. Nadine." Dallas told us. "Anyways, she held this slave trade in Rome, and soon or later, there will be so many slaves around the world that the law will be forced to change." "You wanted the world to become worse?" Stephanie asked. "Have you studied the history, Dallas? It consists of all wars and human traficking and all the human mistakes. Let's not make the same mistake." "Of course I'm not making the same mistake. I am just enjoying that I had one slave to keep me a company. Besides, she's going to make a good *****." I can't believe what he had done to her, but what he told me before, that's the only thing we need to know. The slave trade is happening in Rome, and we are on a race against time in order to save as much people as possible from slavery. "Now go, demigods." Dallas said. "Go and do your quest, and..." Dallas paused as he warped and when he reappeared, he appeared with Lara Croft. "You may take her with you." "Take her with us?" I asked with disgust. "No way! We're not savages that kept slaves!" "You might find her quite useful." Dallas tried to persuade us. "No, and besides, you already made her swear to the river styx to be a slave forever, remember?" Stephanie added. "Yes, I did that." Dallas said. "But I only say that she is going to be a slave forever, not a slave that belongs to me." "But still, you're a savage!" I said. "How could you take away one's right to live like that! Do you not have any compassion?" Dallas looked like he regrets what he has done, but my instincts told me this is a trick, to only make us believe that he is repenting. "I'm sorry." Dallas said. "I shouldn't have taken that slave, and now..." Dallas turned towards us, and he transformed into this grotesque form of this human hybrid of some kind of a demon. "You're going nowhere!" The demon lunged. All 5 of us unsheathed our weapons and thrust our swords forward as Dallas disappeared in the mist. We all sheathed our weapons and kicked the dust remains. "Well, that took care of Dallas, for now." Melody said. Meanwhile, Lara is still trying desperately to move, but her little weights were restraining her movement so much she crumpled down again. Bella light both of her hands in a very bright ball of light, and pointed at the chainlink. Her hands glowed brighter and brighter until a tiny laser came to life. The laser is slicing through the chain link, and after two of the chain links are broken, there's 2 more to go. Bella concentrated the laser to cut into the chain links more. After a few minutes, the chain links broke, and Lara is set free. "Free at..." Just then, a very strong lightning is heard from outside. It appears to be some kind of a god that is very angry. I reckon it would be Zeus, but why is he angry? And why would he be angry at this time of the day? Well, that's what we're going to find out. Anyways, we freed Lara and gave her some clothes. I decided to take the cab and hop onto the back seat. Bella is driving now, and we're driving in the heavy storm. Just then, a man walked through the winds. Yes, literally walked through the winds. He looked like a man with a tuxedo and a tie. Amazingly, he walked without getting wet, but his shirt, tie and pants were affected by the wind. The man flew towards us slowly. Wow, could he be a god? "Actually, king of the gods." The man said. Zeus. "Zeus." I got out of the cab and bowed before him. "Ah, yes. The reason why I'm here is that..." He put his hands on his pocket, and reached for something. Then he pulled it out. As he pulled it out, it seemed to be some kind of a pitcher, a golden pitcher, and it's carrying this water. Even the smell seems like 1000 times worse than a Hydrochloric Acid. "...Someone here has broken the oath made from the River Styx." Someone? Did he mean someone from here? Have we broken the oath from the styx? If so, who is it, and what? "It's..." I heard someone from the back. "It's me..." Lara said. "I'm sorry, but..." "So, it's you!" Zeus's voice made the surrounding storm intensified. "Now, you have a chance to redeem yourself, Ms. Croft. You can either drink from this pitcher, or you can continue what you have sworn on the river Styx." "Oh, no." I said to Zeus. "She can't be a slave again, It's just not fair. It's inhuman, it's..." "Hey, don't worry." Zeus said. "She said she's going to be a slave, not his slave." I thought about it. He was right. As long as Lara stayed with us on a quest, she will be alright, and not considered breaking an oath in the river styx. I remembered the myth of Heracles when he pushed Iphitus off the cliff. Heracles looked for a way to purify his sins, and he sought Apollo. Apollo agreed to purify his sin, one of the conditions is to serve a woman as a slave. He was sold to Omphale, queen of Lydia, and yet this queen did not treat Heracles as a slave at all. She likes Heracles build and thought she would make him a great lover. Perhaps, Lara could do the same? "Let's take her." Jarren said, while taking her hand. Lara quickly withdrew it and reached for her pocket, then she looked surprised. I guess she is reaching for her two pistols, but they're not here. I watched slowly as her red angry face starting to ease, then I took her hand and hugged her. "Don't worry, Lara." Jarren told her. "I will take care of you, I promise." "Well, okay then." Zeus said. "Problem solved." Then he disappeared in a flash of lightning. "Well, that took care of the current problem. Now let's head to Rome to save all the people!" I announced. "People?" Bella asked. "Yes, people." I said. "People who were enslaved." "Alright... Now, which route shall we take?" I asked. Category:The Voyage Category:Chapter Page